The Company

The Dalton Family homeMansfield, Texas - 1924

The year is 1926. Tucked away in a small rock home on a quiet road in a small rural Texas town called Mansfield, Mildred Dalton is busy in her kitchen making pastries and pies. Her husband, Jessie Otis Dalton, operates a one-room grocery store in Fort Worth, Texas. Each day he takes to work with him more of her pastry creations and merchandises them alongside other food items for sale. Times are tough and extra money is needed. Mildred and Jessie have 3 children to care for. Mildred is using a lot of egg whites for pastry meringues, but hardly any of the leftover egg yolks, so she decides to use the egg yolks and begins making homemade mayonnaise.

Grocery Store Fort Worth, Texas - 1925

Before long Mildred's mayonnaise is a best seller in the Fort Worth grocery
store and a favorite amongst family friends. In fact it's such a hit that neighbors
begin to pay for it, and grocery store customers call in orders ahead of time
to make sure that product is available. Mildred decides to compliment the popular
mayonnaise by making an equally impressive homemade sandwich spread. This item,
however, requires pickle relish as a main ingredient. As such, a relish supplier
is secured but he soon raises prices to what are considered ridiculously high
levels, Jessie and Mildred are left with no other option but to plant a pickle
patch in their home garden. The ensuing harvest is so abundant that the family
begins packing pickles.